Chapter 4 of Severine Deneulin's book, Wellbeing, Justice and Development Ethics, has the title "Assessing and Transforming".  Dr. Deneulin's thoughts on this topic will be summarized here but instead of citing data about Buenos Aires in Argentina and La Oroya in Peru we will look at data pertaining to Alameda County here in California.  We shall also insert some new thoughts on "Socially Constructing a New Reality" as a way of transforming our world. 

Using the Language

Deneulin points out that a language is learned "foremost through practice by engaging in social relationships".  The language which Deneulin's book sets forth "has well-being and agency at its core".  She sees a "critical role of groups and relationships in forming agency, in nurturing people's ability to act so that oneself, and others, have opportunities to do or be what they have reason to value".

 
In portraying the versatility of this language Deneulin says, Amartya Sen presented a moral approach from the perspective of freedom which is fundamentally open-ended, incomplete and ambiguous.  It can be interpreted in various ways according to the situation the social analyst has to address.  She goes on to describe how, as examples, this framework has been used to set forth feminist, environmental, and religious perspectives. 

Regarding religious perspectives she says, "There have recently been initiatives at linking key insights of the capability approach with the Qur'an, such as the concept of "falah' or wellbeing, which includes obligations to provide food, health, shelter, economic security and safe environment to all, respect the natural environment, ensure a fair and equitable distribution of material wealth and protect the weak from the exploitation by the strong.  Similar research is being undertaken to link the capability approach with a Christian normative framework and its idea of solidarity, preferential option for the poor, dignity of the human person, structural sin, forgiveness and hope" [all parts of Catholic Social Teaching].

 
How can members of the Catholic Community of Pleasanton use this language?  To begin with, we can think about what we desire to do and be, and we can discuss these desires with family members and friends.  In discussions of social concerns we can bring attention to people's well-being (the types of employment and other functionings available to them) and their agency, meaning their ability to control their own lives.

 
These same concerns can be raised when writing to elected officials or writing letters to the editor of newspapers of other publications.  Most importantly, these concerns can be expressed in what we do, in the projects to which we devote our time and energy.

The Kinds of Lives People Are Living

The capability approach involves looking at the kinds of lives people are living.  Does their employment give them a sense of accomplishment?  Does it draw upon their powers of agency?  To what extent can they decide for themselves what to do and how to do it?  Are decisions made collectively?  Are people held responsible and accountable for their actions?
How much time do people spend going to and from work?  What percentage of people is unemployed?  What percentage is doing menial work?

A very good source of information about people's well-being from the capability perspective is https://www.measureofamerica.org/.   It has a good description of "human development" and its relation to Amartya Sen's capability approach and the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Reports, see link .  It also has very pertinent and well-written articles in its Blog section, blog link.

The Measure of America website provides data on what it calls the "American Human Development Index", which is the one-third of the sum of the Education Index, the Health Index and the Income Index, each a rating on a scale from 0 to 10.

In particular, the Measure of America website has relevant data about Alameda County (which we can take to be the same as what we have called the Tri-Valley-to-Oakland Corridor).  It gives the following data for Alameda County:

Education Indicators

• Less than high school  14.1%
• At least high school diploma  85,9%
• At least bachelor degree  40.3%
• Graduate or professional degree  16.3%
• School enrollment ages 3 to 24  80.8%
• Preschool enrollment ratio (% enrolled ages 3 & 4)  58.6%

Health Indicators

• Life expectancy at birth  80.7 years
• Child mortality (age 1 - 4, per 100,000)  43
• Low birth weight infants  7.1%
• Practicing physicians per 10,000  9
• Uninsured (% of individuals lacking coverage)  15.1%
• Diabetes (% age 18 and older) 7.2%
• Smoking (% age 18 and older)  11.9%
• Binge Drinking (% adults in past 30 days)  19.7

Data are available from the U.S. Census Bureau for cities with populations of 5,000 or more.  See for example:

 
Castro Valley, CV link
San Leandro, SL link 

 
Transforming Unjust Structures

California's biggest social problems seem to be

• An excess of low-skill workers (too many unskilled and low-skilled workers and too few jobs for them to do)
• Great disparities in the quality of education provided by public schools (good schools in expensive neighborhoods, poor schools in high poverty areas)
• Lack of apprenticeships and other training opportunities to acquire skills not requiring college-level education
• High levels of crime and self-destructive behavior in high poverty areas creating low aspirations

From a presentation titled "Job and Workforce Trends and Policy Implications for Economic Competitiveness" for an economic forecast conference a set of slides is available, slides 
  
California's Economic Development Department has Labor market information for Alameda County, link.

Other sources of information:

   California Department of Education,
      Testing & Accountability, link  
      Data & Statistics, link 
      Common Core Standards, link 

California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/ 

The "Summit on Homelessness" that was held in Livermore on March 30 is described in another {article}.

Socially Constructing a New Reality

The book, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, first published in 1966 is one of the most famous books of sociology published in the 20th century.  It has stimulated much further writing. 

The book is about what is regarded as knowledge in a society and what is regarded as knowledge among the many individuals and groups within a society.  The ordinary process of living brings about each person's "cognitive development" - what they have come to know in their lives, particularly what they have come to know how to do.

The Introduction to the book contains these words: 

                  ...commonsense "knowledge" rather than "ideas" must be the central focus for the sociology of knowledge.  It is precisely this "knowledge" that constitutes the fabric of meanings without which no society could exist.

 
  The sociology of knowledge, therefore, must concern itself with the social construction of reality.

The realities that people live with and what comes to be regarded as knowledge are created by the everyday acts and occurrences of people's lives.  For the most part changes in what people do - their work and play, what they buy, what they wear, what they talk about - occur slowly over the months and years.  But the changes occur because of people's actions and interactions.

Is it possible that we could begin to create a new and more just society by changing the way we live our lives?  Could we become a catalyst for showing more concern about the kinds of lives we - and the people around - are living?  Could we think and talk more about what we care about doing and being?  Could we show a concern about the paths open to us for changing our work lives, our involvement with community affairs, with the aesthetic, spiritual, and cultural lives of those around us, our forms of recreation?  Could we make our lives fuller and more intensely involved with the lives of the people around us?

Yes, we could.

The transformation of society that we could be a part of could draw upon the ideas in Deneulin's book, but they could also draw on

• The Catholic Community of Pleasanton's continuing effort to live as Christ calls us to live, to know Christ better, and to make Christ better known
• The teachings and example of Pope Francis
• The vision of Fr. Tom Bonacci and his Interfaith Peace Project for people of different faiths to come to know each other well, to live out their moral values, and to authentically give place to their spiritual selves
• What we learn from efforts to fulfill the goals of the Summit of Homelessness that took place on April 30